State of the Nation Address 2017 (SONA 2017)

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This thread is the official SONA 2017 thread, please discuss everything related 2017 State of the Nation Address here.

President Jacob Zuma will present the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces) on 9 February 2017 at 19h00. This will be President Zuma’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to the joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament since he was re-elected in May 2014.

The theme for SoNA 2017 is: “The Year of Oliver Reginald Tambo: Unity in Action Together Moving South Africa Forward.”

The President will provide an update on the implementation of the Programme of Action based on the National Development Plan (NDP). The 2017 SoNA will also be delivered within the context of the current strides made by government to respond to the various challenges that our country is facing.

The 2017 SoNA will be followed by a debate in the National Assembly and the President’s reply to the debate.

The 2017 SoNA will be broadcast live on a number of television and radio stations and streamed live on the Parliament’s website and at public viewing centres.

Follow the conversation on social media using on Twitter #SONA2017

I will post the live feed here as soon as it is available on the 9th of February.

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JSE drifted lower on Tuesday on fears that President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address would be a prelude to a cabinet reshuffle.

Lacklustre US markets led Asian markets lower. The Nikkei shed 0.35% to 18910 points and the Shanghai composite 0.12% to 3153 points. The Dow was 0.09% lower at 20052 points on profit-taking.

Weakness in the industrial‚ financial and food and drug retailers and banking indices weighed on the JSE and the strength of the resource 10‚ gold mining‚ platinum‚ and general retail indices could not offset it.

Nedbank Corporate Investment Banking Analysts said although the glut of iron ore‚ copper and oil price continued prices were rallying on changing fundamentals.

Data out on Tuesday morning included foreign reserves figures from the Reserve Bank and the Business Confidence Index (BCI) from the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci).

The Bank reported that gross foreign reserves fell by $690m to $46.7bn in January. Rating agencies watch this figure closely as it is an indicator of a country’s ability to repay foreign debt in the short term.

Sacci said the BCI rose by 3.9 index points to 97.7 points in January from 93.8 points in December‚ and was 5.1 index points higher than January 2016’s 92.6 index points. The chamber said this suggested improved business prospects after tough 2016.

At noon the all share was 0.36% lower at 51‚964.7 points while top-40 index lost 0.41% to 45‚168 points.

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Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma has authorised the deployment of 441 soldiers to assist police in “law and order” activities for the Opening of Parliament, the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The SA National Defence Force members will be working in cooperation with the South African Police Service “to maintain law and order during the Opening of Parliament where the President will deliver the State of the Nation Address 2017”.

The SANDF will be employed together with the police from 5 to 10 February.

An SANDF source told News24 that the deployment was unusual as soldiers only ever took part in SONA in a ceremonial capacity.

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Here’s a quick wrap-up of what you need to know about this year’s Sona.

Thursday night’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Jacob Zuma will be his 10th address to the country and marks the formal opening of the national legislature.

Here is a quick wrap-up of what you need to know about this year’s Sona.

It is a rare occasion when all three arms of the state, the executive, judiciary and legislature, come together to listen to the president reflect on the challenges facing the country and how government intends to address them.

It is also a rare joint sitting of both houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) called by the president.

Zuma is expected to focus a great deal of his speech on the economy and land reform, taking into account how the country’s economic growth has stalled over the past year and fears over a credit rating downgrade by global ratings agencies.

This year’s theme is celebrating 20 years of the constitution and 20 years since the establishment of the NCOP.

This will be Zuma’s 10th Sona address since his election to the Union Buildings.

According to parliament, the opportunity for MPs to comment on or question the address comes during a two-day joint sitting to debate the address on February 14 and 15.

Zuma will respond to the debate during the two-day debate on February 16.

Notable attendees of the event include former presidents and deputy presidents of the country, heads of Chapter 9 institutions tasked with protecting SA’s constitution, the mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille and citizens from various walks of life.

Around 730 local and international journalists have been accredited to cover the event.

Two protests have been planned during of Zuma’s address.

The South African Unintegrated Forces United Front will reportedly hold a gathering on the Grand Parade for 100 participants.

The City of Cape Town on Tuesday granted the ANC permission to hold a “People’s Assembly” also on the Grand Parade for about 10 000 party supporters. Zuma is expected to attend the rally after his Sona address to discuss “radical economic transformation”.

The National Union of Metal Workers (NUM) has applied for a protest permit for 500 people. Their application was yet to be confirmed by the City of Cape Town.

The Economic Freedom Fighters will attend Zuma’s address, but it is unclear if the party will disrupt his speech following the chaos that broke out when its MPs were brutally ejected out of the House for calling on the president to account for the controversial nonsecurity upgrades to his private KwaZulu-Natal home in Nkandla.

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They should rather move it to Pretoria if you think about it, less travel expenses for more people.

They want to. There was a whole thing about it in parliament last year about it and one of the biggest reasons was that it would save costs (this from the ANC if I recall). If memory serves the DA actually opposed this because they said the reason the ANC wants to move it is because it was embarrassing for them to not be on control of the metro where parliament is.

That conversation kinda just died and I wonder if the DA wasn't correct and the ANC gave up after they lost control of the PTA metro.